Diode laser type device

ABSTRACT

Applicant requests that the original specification and claims be replaced with the new specification and claims submitted herewith corrected along the lines suggested by the initial examining personel. The papers submitted herewith have additional corrections, namely the addition of paragraph numbers, [0003], etcetera. The new papers do not contain any new matter.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to diode laser type of devices comprising: a first, initial layered structure made of semiconductor materials with selected optical properties that comprise two optical traps, one trap including an active region and another trap that captures part of the radiation emitted in the active region, and two confinement layers that transversally confine the emitted radiation in the layered structure whereas, a less absorbing window is formed in a second layered structure by removing part of the top confinement layer such that the emitted radiation is shifted toward the optical trap and the confinement factor is reduced.

BACKGROUND

Laser oscillators and laser amplifiers are most known diode type laser devices, in short diode laser devices. This application is related to edge emitter diode lasers, wherein the amplification by stimulated emission (laser effect) is produced along a device which is millimeters long and the emission exits through facets at the ends of the device. It is known that the active region projection on the exit facets is the part of diode type laser devices which is most sensitive to degradation. This is the place where Catastrophic Optical Degradation (COD) and important gradual degradation processes occur. This degradation processes represent important factors that limit the operation of these lasers at high power and at high power density of the radiation that traverse the exit window. The catastrophic degradation is practically instantaneous when the power density of the radiation, emitted through the active region at the mirror facet, overpasses certain threshold values. The values for the power density of the emitted radiation that passes through the active region and produce catastrophic degradation are, in a great extent, material characteristics. In some cases, the gradual degradation starts from the mirror, having in the end, after a time period, the same effects as the catastrophic degradation, i.e. the irremediable destruction of the mirrors and of the laser. To avoid degradation, laser operation at power and power density levels lower than the catastrophic degradation level is recommendable. The catastrophic degradation is produced with the contribution of electronic states at the exit windows surface, surface states that modify the distribution of the electrical potential and the light absorption phenomena in the superficial layer at the semiconductor material—external medium interface. To remedy the effects induced by these surface states several solutions for obtaining less sensitive “windows” for diode laser were imagined.

There are known diode lasers whereat the surface of the diode laser window facet, defined as the interface between the semiconductor material of the type A₃B₅, A₂B₆, or other semiconductor materials and the external medium, most frequently the surrounding air, is covered with thin layers of other materials. There are such proposals for mirror covering with different types of oxides, including the natural oxides of the semiconductor materials of the laser structure. The disadvantage of the oxide covering is that usually they do not produce the highest catastrophic degradation power levels. There are proposals for mirror covering with other semiconductor materials, transparent to the laser emitted radiation, for example with ZnSe, usually polycrystalline. Although it produces a very high catastrophic degradation level, the disadvantage of this method is that, in order to have the highest efficiency and reliability, the deposition of other semiconductor materials need to be done in very clean conditions, for example by cleaving the mirrors in very high vacuum and by immediately covering the resulting facet in this high vacuum conditions.

There are also known diode lasers whereat the mirror facet is covered with semiconductor materials from the same family as the semiconductor materials that form the multilayer structure of the diode laser, for example a material of the type Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)As in the case of a structure obtained from layers in the Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)As system. In all cases the covering material has the energy gap higher than the energy gap of the active layer, in order to be transparent to the laser emitted radiation. To deposit this covering semiconductor material, in the semiconductor wafer that contains a laser layered structure, narrow etching streets are formed at the approximate location where the future mirror will be and the new covering material is deposited in place of the etched material. The disadvantage of this method is that in order to etch the active region and to replace it with other semiconductor material, the entire waveguide is affected and the waveguide is interrupted at the etch-regrowth interface, at a certain distance from the exit window surface. This is especially true for symmetric layered structures that contain the active region in the middle of the structure's single waveguide. From the etch-regrowth interface the radiation propagates toward the facet by diffraction. A wide etching street has the disadvantage that increases the diffraction losses and reduces the effective reflection coefficient. A narrow etching stripe, with a pronounced depth profile, has the disadvantage that is more difficult to be obtained in real life, the regrowth processes are more difficult and the further cleaving inside of a narrow stripe is more difficult.

There are known diode laser structures that comprise two waveguides where the active region is located asymmetrically relative to the whole structure. In this case only one waveguide is etched and the full etch-regrowth process can reconstruct a waveguide with similar properties as the initial waveguide, but still have the disadvantage they are formed by a difficult process.

Both etch-regrowth solutions have the disadvantages that the etching dissolves the active region itself, possibly leaving, at the interface between the undissolved active region and the regrown material, defects that act as nonradiative recombination centers, and that the regrowth process is by itself cumbersome.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The problem solved by this invention is the achievement of less absorbing windows that do not interrupt essentially the propagation properties of a diode laser type waveguide to the mirror facet, reduces the absorption losses and nonradiative recombination in a region close to the mirror facet and does not introduce supplementary defects when implemented.

The windows for diode type laser devices according to the invention avoid the disadvantages of other known solution since: they are obtained in first layered structures with two optical traps, one containing the active region being situated closer to the top of the layered structure and a second optical trap that captures part of the radiation emitted in the active region

wherein by removing part of the top confinement layer but not touching the active region a second layered structure is formed between the first layered structure and an exit mirror facet, part of the radiation propagating in the modified layered structure being shifted from the active region trap toward the said second trap, avoiding absorption losses and nonradiative recombination in the active region close to the mirror facet, but by this modification a large part of the layered structure remains unaffected, such that the optical properties of the initial structure are preserved into a great extent, so that the radiation is propagating up to the mirror into a waveguide similar to the waveguide of the initial first layered structure of the diode type laser devices.

The diode type laser devices with less absorbing windows, according to the invention, have the following advantages:

the layered structure proper for the partial removal of some layers, without an essential change of the waveguide, are low confinement structures which can operate at very high power densities and output powers; the removal process stops before the active region is reached, such that the active region is not exposed to the removal process that might induce defect formation that enhance nonradiative recombination; the radiation propagation up to the mirror cleaved facet is done with minimum coupling losses relative to the rest of the initial, unmodified structure; in the same process can be obtained both windows with proper optical properties and the ridges for the longitudinal propagation;

In the following, examples for the accomplishment of the invention will be given, in connection with FIGS. 1-5, that represent:

FIG. 1 A multilayer structure

FIG. 2 A possible variation of the refractive index for a first embodiment.

FIG. 3 A possible variation of the refractive index for a second embodiment

FIG. 4 A longitudinal arrangement comprising an initial layered structure and a modified layered structure, which represents a less absorbing mirror

FIG. 5 Normalized intensity field distributions in transversal direction for initial and modified structures of a particular design

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Less absorbing windows for diode type laser devices according to the invention are obtained in an initial layered structure similar to that described in FIG. 1, formed from several layers. Among these layers some form a first optical trap 1, highly shadowed in FIG. 1 and a second optical trap 2, lightly shadowed in FIG. 1. The first trap includes at least an active layer 3. When more active layers are present they are separated by barriers for carriers and together form an active region. The structure lays on a substrate 4 and ends with a top contact layer 5. The wording “top” is used in opposition with “substrate” which is generally accepted as being down. The radiation is produced mostly in the active region by the combination of the pairs of opposite sign charge carriers, electrons and holes, which are injected by a p-n junction located in the active region vicinity or by a p-i-n structure that includes the active region.

The first optical trap 1 that includes the active region is situated asymmetrically relative to the whole structure, closer to the top contact layer 5. The top contact layer is followed by a corresponding metal contact 6. On the other side of the substrate, relative to the multilayer structure, is situated the other metal contact 7. Using these two metal contacts 6 and 7 an electrical, bias U is applied to the structure, what produces the flow of an electrical current, I.

The waveguide comprises several other layers, also essential being two confinement layers that transversally confine the emitted radiation to the whole layered structure: a top confinement layer 8 and a substrate confinement layer 9. The two mentioned traps can be separated by a separation layer 10. In FIG. 1 is shown a structure, with a separation layer 10. Separation layer is not always necessary and the traps might be joined. With reference to an orthogonal system Oxyz, the layers of the multilayer structure are parallel with the plane yOz and the radiation propagates in the longitudinal direction Oz. The Ox direction, perpendicular to the plane yOz is the transversal direction. The refractive index along the transversal direction depends on coordinate x: n=n(x). The refractive index does not depend on the lateral direction oy. The refractive indexed are named corresponding to the layer to whom they are related. The layer identification will appear as a subscript. For example if substrate confinement layer 9 has a constant refractive index, its value is n₉ and if the refractive index is variable, the function describing the variation is n₉(x).

A first embodiment is shown in FIG. 2. The refractive indexes of confinement layers have constant values n_(c), the same for both layers: n₈=n₉=n_(c). The refractive indexes in the mentioned traps 1 and 2 are higher than the refractive indexes of the confinement layers 8 and 9. In general the trap's refractive indexes are variable, described by functions n₁(x) and n₂(x). The profile of the function n₁(x) and n₂(x) are bumps over the n_(c) line, which traverse the bottom of these bumps as a dashed line. The first trap 1 which comprises at least an active layer has at the active layers location high refractive indexes. The separation layer index n₁₀ might have values under or above this line. In case it is lower, it acts as a less transparent radiation barrier between the two traps. On the contrary, when is higher, it acts as a more transparent radiation barrier between the two traps. Bump magnitudes can characterize the traps.

The bump magnitudes, either that of the first optical trap 1, formed between the separation layer 10 and the top confinement layer 8, or that of the second optical trap 2, formed between the substrate confinement layer 9 and the separation layer 10, are defined as being equal to the sums of elementary regions thickness in these bumps δ×, multiplied with the square root of the difference between the square of the refractive index of each elementary region and the square of the refractive index n_(9max):Σδ×(n(x)²−n₉ ²). The sum of bump magnitudes needs to be relatively small for the structure with several layers to accept only the transversal fundamental mode, with the same phase in both traps. When the refractive index of the separation layer 10 is higher than its magnitude should be included in the evaluation of the sum of bump magnitudes.

A more general embodiment is described in FIG. 3. Refractive indexes in the confinement layers 8 and 9 a function on position x. FIG. 3 shows a possible variation of the refractive index into a structure with separation layer, n₉(x) is the variable refractive index of the substrate confinement layer 9, n_(9max) is the maximum value of the refractive index of the substrate confinement layer 9, etc. If a layer is described by a single value of its refractive index, only this value is mentioned, like n₃ or n₁₀.

To act as traps, the refractive indexes in the mentioned traps 1 and 2 should be higher than the refractive indexes of the confinement layers 8 and 9. If the refractive indexes of the confinement layers 8 and 9 function on position x, it is preferred to have an increase of the refractive index of the confinement layers 8 and 9, from the extremity near top contact layer of the top confinement layer 8 toward the extremity near substrate of the substrate confinement layer 9 and the highest refractive index of the top confinement layer 8, n_(8max), is smaller or equal to the smallest refractive index of the substrate confinement layer 9, n_(9min). With a dotted line is described the mentioned increasing general tendency, that is excluding the first and the second optical trap bumps and a possible variation of the separation region. In the transversal direction, the field distribution is trapped in the two mentioned optical traps 1 and 2 by the bumps formed by their refractive index profiles, relatively higher than the refractive indexes of adjacent layers. The ascending profile of function n₈(x) and n₉(x) also repels the field distribution from the confinement layer 8 and the optical first trap 1 toward the second optical trap 2. This effect will be named in short the optical wall effect. By using the optical wall effect, narrower top confinement layer 8 could be used to contain the radiation in the whole layered structure.

The described structure, by a proper selection of the optical and geometrical properties of the constitutive layers, is characterized by the fact that much of the radiation field distribution is attracted toward second optical trap and pushed from the first optical trap 1, where the radiation is produced. The allocation of the field between these two attractors depends on the relative magnitudes of the trap bumps measured from the highest refractive index n_(9max) of the substrate confinement layer 9, and on the optical wall effect that might be induced by the confinement layer 8. In comparison with the first embodiment, the position of the first optical trap and of active region closer to the top of the structure facilitates changes in field allocation by technological processes.

In the case of the second embodiment, the bump magnitudes, either that of the second optical trap 2, formed between the substrate confinement layer 9 and the separation layer 10, or that of the first optical trap 1, formed between the separation layer 10 and the confinement layer 8, are defined as being equal to the sums of elementary regions thickness in these bumps δ×, multiplied with the square root of the difference between the square of the refractive index of each elementary region and the square of the refractive index n_(9max):Σδ×(n²−n_(9max) ²). The sum of the bump magnitudes need to be relative small for the structure with several layers to accept only the transversal fundamental mode, with the same phase in both traps.

A less absorbing window structure 11 is obtained by modifying the initial structure, in a street perpendicular to the propagation direction Oz as shown in FIG. 4. By this modification, part of the confinement layer 8 is removed but the two optical traps 1 and 2, and especially the active region, are preserved intact.

As a consequence of the processes, along the propagation direction Oz in the diode laser there are two waveguide structures, an initial structure 12 and the modified structure 11. These two structures are separated from each other by a separation interface 13, shown with a dashed line. The modified structure is separated from the external medium by an exit facet 14.

For the initial structures with planar layers 12, that are not delimited or modified in the lateral direction Oy, the modes that propagate along the propagation direction Oz are characterized by a radiation field distribution in the transversal direction Ox, a distribution described by a function E(x). In the direction Oy the E(x) function is assumed constant. The mode propagating in the modified structure 11 has a radiation field distribution function E′(x). The functions E(x) and E′(x) are normalized scalar functions intended to describe the distributions of the vector electromagnetic fields E, H. They are solutions to the corresponding Helmholtz equations in the structures refractive indexes profiles. The effective refractive indexes for modes propagating in the two structures 12 and 11 and noted n_(eff), and n′_(eff) are part of the same solutions.

Generally, the field distributions have maxima at the location of the two optical traps. When one of the maxima is much higher than the other one, the second maximum appears only as a shoulder to the first maximum. The relative magnitude of these maxima depends on the magnitude of the respective optical traps but also on the external condition in confinement layers. The field distribution E(x) exponentially decays inside the thickness of the confinement layer 8. Due to the fact that removing part of the confinement layer 8, a second wall is approaching the first optical trap 1, the optical trapped in this first optical trap will be pushed toward the second optical trap. Compared with the field distribution E(x) in the initial structure, the field distribution E′(x) in the modified structure 11 has an increased maximum located at second optical trap and a decreased maximum located at the first optical trap. This second optical wall effect is induced by reflection on top interface 15 with the external medium: air, dielectrics, and metals depending on adopted technology.

Due the change in the relative magnitude of the two maxima, the modified structure 11 has a lower confinement factor Γ′ than the confinement factor Γ of the initial structure 12. From the total flux Φ, only a fraction ΓΦ, respectively Γ′Φ, is passing through the active region. The consequence is that, as radiation travels in the modified structure toward the exit, a smaller flux, Γ′Φ, compared with ΓΦ, will have a chance to be absorbed near the exit facet 14 when exiting through the active region. It is known that Catastrophic Optical Degradation (COD) is mainly produced by the absorption of the radiation that exit through the active region followed by nonradiative recombination of the generated carriers. For structures with higher confinement factor the level of Catastrophic Optical Degradation is higher and the rate of gradual degradation due to changes in mirror structure is lower. The less absorbing structure 11 having a lower confinement factor protects the initial structure 12. The initial structure 12 needs a higher confinement factor to assure enough modal gain for the laser effect.

This type of modified window structure 11 is named Less Absorbing Mirror (LAM), in contrast with other types of windows which are Non Absorbing Mirrors (NAM).

The asymmetrical structures according with the invention are characterized by the fact that these two distribution functions are very similar to each other. The changes in the field distributions from E(x) to E′(x) are localized mainly at the position of the first trap 1. A measure of the similarity degree for the distribution functions is the overlapping coefficient defined as |∫E(x)E′(x)dx|², where it was considered that the distribution functions E(x) and

E′(x) are normalized to unity. An overlapping coefficient close to unity assures reduced losses for the propagating modes when passing through the separation surface 14, so that the radiation propagating in the fundamental mode of the initial layered structure continues to propagate almost entirely in the fundamental mode of the modified layered structure. A second consequence of this similarity is that the effective refractive indexes have close values.

In table 1 a structure with a separation layer, obtained from materials in the Al_(x)Ga_(1-x)As system for 940 nm emission is presented. The structure is defined by the layer's compositions and thicknesses. In this structure active region trap is formed by the active Quantum Well (QW) and two other layers on the left and the right of the QW, which in this particular case have constant refractive indexes. The second trap has also a constant refractive index. Other more sophisticate profiles of the refractive indexes in the traps are possible.

TABLE 1 Layer's compositions and thicknesses for a structure with two traps 1^(st) 1^(st) Top trap QW in trap 2^(nd) Top contact left trap right trap Substr. Layer name contact confin. 1^(st) trap Separation 2^(nd) trap Confin. Substr. Layer ID 3 6 1 10 2 7 4 Comp. index x 0.0 0.41 0.22 InGaAs 0.22 0.32 0.22 0.32 0.0 Thickness (μm) 0.2 1.2 0.137 0.007 0.072 0.3 0.22 3.4 100

In Table 2 a modified structure, is presented. The difference between structure presented in Table 1 and structure presented in Table 2 is a thinner top confinement layer 6 which is covered with an oxide layer and the missing top contact layer.

TABLE 2 Layer's compositions and thicknesses for a modified structure formed from an initial structure with two traps 1^(st) 1^(st) Top trap QW in trap 2^(nd) contact left trap right trap Substr. Layer name Oxide confin. 1^(st) trap Separation 2^(nd) trap Confin. Substr. Layer ID 5 6 1 10 2 7 4 Comp. index x 0.2 0.41 0.22 InGaAs 0.22 0.32 0.22 0.32 0.0 Thickness (μm) 0.2 0.1 0.137 0.007 0.072 0.3 0.22 3.4 100

The normalized field intensity distributions in these two structures are presented in FIG. 4. The shift of the power distribution toward the second optical trap can be easily seen. The overlapping coefficient is 93%. The effective refractive indexes are n=3.3566 and n′=3.3531, respectively. The variation is Δn=3.5×10⁻³, a value small enough to avoid strong reflections from the interface 13.

The confinement factor for the initial structure is r=0.72% and for the modified structure is Γ/Γ′=0.42%. The resistance to COD of the radiation amplified in the initial structure and in the modified LAM structure is increased by a factor of Γ/Γ′=1.67.

It is worthwhile to compare these results with the results from other layered, initial and modified structures, deriving from the first structures presented in Tables 1 and 2, but having only the active region trap, without the second radiation trap and with substrate confinement layer enlarged enough to avoid strong absorption in the substrate. These structures are presented in tables 3 and 4.

TABLE 3 Layer's compositions and thicknesses for a structure with only active region trap 1^(st) 1^(st) Top trap QW in trap Top contact left trap right 2^(nd) Substr. Layer name contact confin. 1^(st) trap Separation trap Confin. Substr. Layer ID 5 6 1 7 4 Comp. index x 0.0 0.41 0.22 InGaAs 0.22 0.32 0.0 Thickness (μm) 0.2 1.2 0.137 0.007 0.072 10 100

TABLE 4 Layer's compositions and thicknesses for a modified structure formed from an initial structure with only active region trap 1^(st) 1^(st) Top trap QW in trap contact left trap right 2^(nd) Substr. Layer name Oxide confin. 1^(st) trap Separation trap Confin. Substr. Layer ID 5 6 1 7 4 Comp. index x 0.0 0.41 0.22 InGaAs 0.22 0.32 0.0 Thickness (μm) 0.2 0.23 0.137 0.007 0.072 10 100

The initial structure having only the active region trap has a confinement factor Γ=0.81%. The modified structure obtained from the structure with only the active region trap has a confinement factor Γ′=0.49%. The resistance to COD of the radiation amplified in the initial structure and in the modified LAM structure is increased by a factor of Γ/Γ′=1.65. The effective refractive indexes are n=3.3505 and n′=3.3490, respectively, and Δn=1.5×10⁻³. The coupling constant is 89%. A first disadvantage of structures with only the active region trap is that the coupling coefficient is lower, such that the diffraction losses offset more what is obtained in COD power level. A second disadvantage is that the substrate confinement layer needs to be very large in order to avoid radiation trapping in substrate and the subsequent losses.

The mirror protection with LAN structures is useful also for the back mirror. If in fact the front and back streets can be obtained in a single process and separated later at the mirror facet formation.

If the top confinement layer removal is done also laterally, a ridge structure is formed. A lateral effective refractive index change is associated with ridge formation. As mentioned, the effective refractive index in initial structure in Table 1 is n=3.3566, drops to n′=3.3531 in the modified structure of Table 2 and the variation is Δn=3.5×10⁻³. A lateral guiding with this value for Δn accepts modes with far field FWHM, FF_(FWHM)=17 degrees. This is a good value is some cases. In the case of single mode devices operating with high modal gain, a smaller variation Δn might be necessary. To cope with this situation, removal of the top confinement layers down to two depths is needed.

The LAM windows protect the exit facets from the high power density of laser devices. It can work for laser oscillators, but also for Semiconductor Laser Amplifiers (SOA). In this later case the LAM street and the interface 13 should by laterally parallel to the facet 13. The back reflection in the case stripes inclined relative to interface 14 is reduced to very small values by this inclination, but also by small values of Δn. 

1. A diode laser type of device comprising: a first, initial layered structure made of semiconductor materials with selected optical properties that comprise two optical traps, one trap including an active region and another trap that capture part of the radiation emitted in the active region, and two confinement layers that transversally confine the emitted radiation in the layered structure, namely a top confinement layer and a substrate confinement layer, said optical trap that includes the active region being situate closer to said top confinement layer, said layers being constructed to accept only a fundamental transversal mode with same phase in both traps, wherein by removing part of said top confinement layer of said initial structure but not touching said active region a modified, less absorbing, second layered structure is formed between the first initial layered structure and an exit mirror facet, part of the radiation propagating in said modified layered structure being shifted from said active region trap toward said second trap, avoiding absorption losses and nonradiative recombination in said active region close to said mirror facet, said second less absorbing structure having a thinner top confinement layer and a lower confinement factor than said first structure
 2. The diode laser type of devices of claim 1, wherein said confinement layers have refractive indexes which are constant and equal to each other.
 3. The diode laser type of devices of claim 1, wherein said confinement layers have refractive indexes that follow an ascending function on position from the top extremity of said top contact confinement layer toward the substrate extremity of said substrate confinement layer such that the radiation emitted in the active region is pushed toward said second optical trap.
 4. The diode laser type of devices of claim 1 that comprise lateral structures adjacent to a longitudinal diode laser stripe, said adjacent structures having a thinner top confinement layer and a lower confinement factor than said initial structure of the diode laser stripe, said lateral structures allowing the lateral confinement of the radiation in said laser stripe.
 5. The diode laser type of devices of claim 4, wherein the removal of part of the top confinement layer for the formation of said lateral structures and the removal of part of the top confinement layer for the formation of said less absorbing structure are done in a single process. 